InBroadcast - InReview 2022 - 54

54
www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 12 - Issue 12 | InReview 2022
InMedia
Broadcast Test &
Measurement Update
Contributing Editor David Kirk re-examines
the developments in the field of broadcast
test and measurement...
T
he transition from analog to
digital
Alert
technology in the mid
1980s opened up the prospect of
a future in which digitised signals
would remain error-free through the
entire production and delivery chain;
test
and
measurement
of
routines
would no longer required. But the
seductive attractions
bit-rate
reduction proved too strong to resist.
Far from being relegated, quality
monitoring became increasingly
important. This short
review looks
at recent developments in test and
measurement as the broadcast media
business continues its migration from
SDI to IP.
Actus
Digital's
measurement
traditional
tools
by
the actual video that
Intelligent
Monitoring Platform is designed to
complement
test
providing
aired when
faults were detected. " We provide
tools for both OTA and OTT on the
same platform, enabling engineers
to troubleshoot
intermittent
difficult
and
problems more easily
and improve overall broadcast and
streaming quality, " says Actus Senior
Vice President Ken Rubin.
For OTA television, the platform
live transport
provides
analysis
stream
including bit-rate per
programme and P1/P2/P3 errors
plus with the actual transport stream
being
recorded
to
disk,
content
can be replayed through other test
and measurement tools for further
analysis. For OTT and streaming
media content, transport statistics
plus HLS analysis and attributes are
provided for each rendition along
with both QoE and QoS evaluation
percentages. It also records SCTE
triggers and highlights issues that
occurred during an advertisement
to identify when 'make-goods' may
be required. The platform can log
issues detected by traditional third
party T&M tools in addition to the
many QoE and QoS issues it detects.
When combined in the same Actus
The VB440
Bridge Technologies' VB440 now
includes signal generation as well as
signal monitoring, allowing reference
signals to be generated when setting
up a studio. These references can
also be used to measure and test
network performance for elements
which are not due to be integrated
into the studio setup until later in the
workflow. The new signal generation
functionality
allows
for users
to
manually set placeholder reference
signals through the GUI itself, or
through NMOS. This can be achieved
for any resolution or frame rate, for
SDR and HDR signals. These can be
used to represent specific sources,
each being given a colour bar and
video or audio ident - even before the
physical asset itself is set-up.
" Through the delivery of continuous
visually-intuitive data
real-time
drawn from monitoring probes based
at the heart of the IP-production
studio, the whole production studio
- whether fixed or
remote - can
leverage monitoring data, " says
Bridge Technologies' Chairman
Leader's LVB440 IP analyzer showing customisable layout
and
Center report, patterns
of
disruption can be recognised. Users
can immediately see what was on air
at the time of the alert and whether
it
recently
affected viewer experience. The
introduced Actus Synchro
tool allows operators to drill down
from an error message in its penalty
box, or on one pane of a multiviewer
screen, into the same channel at
all
nodes
throughout
the
video
distribution chain. This shows where
in the workflow an issue has been
introduced and which downstream
OTA and OTT signals have been
impacted.
Simen Frostad. " The net result
of eventual
Actus Digital's Intelligent Monitoring Platform showing synchro multiple node monitoring
Cobalt
is
that the quality of production and
the reliability
service
experienced by the audience are all
dramatically enhanced. "
Bridge
Technologies
added
SCTE 104 and
has
also
SCTE 35
marker monitoring to its broadcast
monitoring probes, including the
VB330. This will give broadcasters
the ability
the integration of
ad
insertion. As part
Bridge
Digital's 9978-ANC-MON
to monitor and control
downstream
of
Technologies' 6.1 software upgrade,
SCTE 35 and 104 checking are
moved to the QoE/Content checking
tab. A greater range of event types
have been added, along with the
integration of support for newer SCTE
35 messages, including 'time signal
with segmentation descriptor' and
hierarchical messages. The range of
alert-related features available has
also been extended, automatically
signalling event occurrences (or the
failure thereof), all
of which can
be customised according to need.
Furthermore, recent SCTE 35 Cue
Out events
within the thumbnail
mosaic, along with
are now visualised
overview
their current
state - giving at-a-glance insight
into the status of advert cues.
Cobalt Digital's
9978-ANC-MON
is a 3G/HD/SD-SDI ancillary data
monitoring probe on an openGear
card. It monitors and shows the
status of SDI stream ancillary data in
'plain language' on-screen overlays.
The status burn-in overlay can be
viewed via SDI and HDMI. The probe
has its own user interface or can
integrate with automation systems
through IP and SNMP. Data packages
such as closed captioning, SCTE 104,
608-XDS and AFD can be monitored,
including interpreters that parse the
payload and display it as a burnin.
Also included is a continuously
running display of ATSC A/85 LKFS
loudness. Cobalt's
DashBoard
control and monitoring application
for the openGear platform or Cobalt
remote-control
panels
allow full
status and control access locally or
across a standard Ethernet network.
The probe is also available standalone
as the BBG-1078-ANC-MON,
three of which can be installed
in 1U.
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://actusdigital.com https://inbroadcast.com/news/bridge-integrates-sr-live-metadata-into-vb440 https://www.cobaltdigital.com https://www.cobaltdigital.com
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